Why Lawyers Need Editors
Lawyers need editors for this reason: they’re authors. They write client alerts, newsletter articles, and seminar materials published by their firms, and by-lined articles published by others. Some maintain blogs.
Lawyers need editors for this reason too: they’re human. Not only are they capable of error, but they’re susceptible to an occupational hazard. Since they spend so much time writing legal matter and so little time writing promotional matter (e.g., client alerts), they tend to approach the latter just like the former.
The result is promotional material written like a statement of facts — overly formal, hardly interesting (especially when the audience includes not only corporate counselors, but those who influence them, and others of interest*), and way too wordy.
Here’s a quick example. Consider the following intro to a client alert written by an attorney without an editor:
On September 22, 2009, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) promulgated its long awaited final rule (“Rule”) that imposes a mandatory national system for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas (“GHGs”) emissions.1 The Rule enables EPA to collect comprehensive, economy-wide GHG emissions data that can be analyzed on both geographic and facility-specific levels.
Compare that to this intro written by an attorney with an editor:
On Monday, the EPA issued its final rule that requires nationwide monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions. Under the rule, large sources of emissions, and large fuel and gas suppliers and manufacturers of vehicles and engines, will have to make annual reports to the agency.
What’s different, and why?
| What’s Different | Why |
| The latter version is not only shorter, it’s more informative. | This is to satisfy busy readers who value their time and want accurate information quickly. |
| Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is replaced with EPA. | The audience for a New York Times article doesn’t need to be told what EPA means; ditto for the audience for this client alert. |
| The date (September 22, 2009) was eliminated. | The client alert bears a date of publication at the top; it doesn’t have to be repeated. |
| promulgated was replaced with issued | Why use a four-syllable word when two will do? |
| The second sentence was revised. | The original used too much space to provide too little information. |
______
* To attract journalists looking for quotes, the intro has to satisfy a very broad audience.
7 January 2010 at 15:43
As a UK based lawyer I can fully understand the point you are making and agree; but in the main most clients save possibly for in-house counsel find the material arid as soon as law is mentioned. Timing is the key factor and trying to find that hook where you can grab the client and try to understand what might be keeping them awake at night.
7 January 2010 at 16:05
Some people — some prospective clients — have a keen interest in the EPA ruling. Big bucks are at stake, and some lay awake at night wondering how to gather more bucks than others.
There’s always something happening that people are interested in. Write about that — do it in style — and people will begin to talk about you and the work you do, methinks.